Mr. Yates stated that most employers don't look beyond the local area for employees, and therefore the only way illegal aliens could get a job here was to enter illegally. What Mr. Yates fails to consider is that employers who can find employees locally to do the work should do just that--there is no need for foreign workers. In fact, as we have seen in industries such as meat packing and now construction, the importation of illegal foreign workers creates a labor surplus that drives down and keeps wages low for everyone.

The global reach of the internet and telecommunications, as well as the global appeal of the US education system for foreign students allow skilled (and not so skilled) the opportunity to find US employers--IF they have the skills the market needs, and these skills are valuable enough to the employer that he is willing to sponsor an immigrant. The illegal immigrant, on the other hand, comes here, often times with no particular abilities other than a strong back, no knowledge of English, and no idea of whether or not his particular abilities are even needed. Most often, those abilities aren't really in short supply, or are interchangeable with those of every other illegal immigrant, as well as some citizens. Competition for jobs, then, isn't based on skills but on who'll take the least amount of money for the job.

By Mr. Yates reckoning, every person who wants to should be able to come here--a literal impossibility given the billions of people in the world who would, given the opportunity. It should be the US's decision who we take in, NOT a unilateral decision by the illegal immigrant.